Thursday, January 28, 2016

Obama's Enforcer Follows Man into Ladies' Room

The federal government has strong-armed Deluxe Financial Services Corp. of Shoreview, Minnesota into an agreement to pay $115,000 and change its company policy to allow men into women's facilities. As part of the legal action, the Obama administration Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) will be following up to ensure the company succumbs fully to the Gay Agenda.

The male employee, after beginning to show up for work in female clothing, complained in part, that Deluxe supervisors and coworkers referred to him using male pronouns.

According to EEOC’s complaint, Britney Austin was assigned the male sex at birth and presented as male when hired by the company. Ms. Austin performed her duties satisfactorily in the company’s Phoenix offices throughout a lengthy tenure. However, after she informed her supervisor that she was transgender and began to present as a woman at work, Deluxe refused to let her use the women’s restroom.

Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits sex discrimination, including that based on transgender status and gender stereotyping. This includes subjecting an employee to different terms and conditions or a hostile work environment because of sex.

Montgomery also told the company to issue a letter of reference for future employers, change its national health benefits plan to delete any partial exclusion for health care based on transgender status and provide an annual report to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the complainant.

The company issued a letter of apology, which states, "We want to ensure you that we have made changes to our internal policies, including how we treat transgender employees' requests to change biographical information or use a restroom commensurate with their gender identity."

"The company has changed its policies to ensure that transgender employees may use a restroom commensurate with their gender identity, that the company will promptly correct that employee's sex designation and name in our internal records and systems, and that we will take hostile comments based on sex- stereotyping seriously, investigate them, and take prompt corrective and remedial action," the letter read.

In addition to requiring that Deluxe pay monetary damages to Ms. Austin, a three-year consent decree provides that Deluxe will issue a letter of apology to Ms. Austin and a letter of reference for future employers. The consent decree also provides that, as of January 1, 2016, Deluxe's national health benefits plan will not include any partial or categorical exclusion for otherwise medically necessary care based on transgender status.

"This settlement underscores EEOC's commitment to securing the rights of transgender individuals under Title VII in the federal courts," said EEOC General Counsel David Lopez. "This is our second such resolution and we hope that employers will take notice and begin to take proactive steps to prevent and eliminate discrimination against their transgender workers."

This is the third lawsuit filed by EEOC alleging discrimination on the basis of transgender status. In April, 2015, a Florida eye clinic paid $150,000 to settle an EEOC lawsuit seeking relief for an employee who had been transitioning from male to female. EEOC also filed suit seeking relief for an employee of a Detroit area funeral home fired for transitioning from male to female, which is still pending.

Acting [EEOC] District Director Elizabeth Cadle added, "EEOC considers protecting transgender, lesbian, gay, and bisexual employees to be a strategic enforcement priority. We will continue to assure that transgender employees receive the full benefit of federal anti-discrimination laws in all industries."

Austin wasn’t allowed to use the women’s restroom and co-workers used hurtful epithets and intentionally used the wrong gender pronouns to refer to her, the EEOC said in a June complaint. The company denies having created or subjected Austin to a hostile workplace, and said it’s “fully committed to fostering an inclusive, respectful workplace,” according to the order.

“In the interest of resolving this matter, to avoid further cost of litigation, and as a result of having engaged in comprehensive settlement negotiations, the parties have agreed that this action should be resolved by entry of this decree,” Judge Montgomery wrote in Wednesday’s order.

The EEOC is represented in-house by Laurie A Vasichek, Iris Halpern and Michael H. Imdiecke. Austin is represented by Jillian T. Weiss and Ezra Young.

Deluxe is represented by Angela Beranek Brandt and David M. Wilk of Larson King LLP.

The case is Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Deluxe Financial Services Inc., case number 0:15-cv-02646, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.

1) Include gender identity in your non-discrimination and no-harassment policies. If you’re a federal contractor, you should have done this a long time ago. If you’re not, then you should seriously consider adding it now.

2) Make sure your policies provide that discrimination against or harassment of individuals because of their transgender (and related) status will not be tolerated, whether the behavior comes from “employees, customers, agents, contractors, sub-contractors, clients,” or anyone else.

3) Make sure that employees understand that deliberately referring to a transgendered person by his or her “biological” gender, or by his or her original name, is considered discrimination and harassment by the EEOC.

. . .

5) A transgendered employee should be allowed to use the restroom “commensurate with their gender identity” without any limitations. Again, the EEOC’s position is that the employer may not ask for the medical records of the transgendered employee, or otherwise probe into his or her medical details before doing so. (This means an employer cannot make the employee wait to change restrooms until after he or she has had gender-reassignment surgery.)

. . .

7) The employer should conduct annual training for rank-and-file employees that includes discrimination based on gender identity, sex stereotyping, and gender dysphoria, and should penalize any employee who fails to complete the training on an annual basis.